I honestly was very surprised myself but I have noticed this with older model Lightwind kites as well. This is not unique to the Infinity, the Fat Lady is the same and so is the Monkey. I cannot speak for the riders you are referring to and I do not know what board they were riding, but you can usually negate the downwind pull if you use a board that plains quick, maybe they were using Epics light wind board..?
A light wind board is always easy to point up wind especially when you have depowered the kite, but if I am using a lightwind kite in 8-10 knots I do not want to also use a light wind board. You are already having to give certain tradeoffs with the kite, why should you also trade off with the board? Besides with a lightwind board a skilled rider does not need a light wind kite to kite in 8-10 knots. I want a kite that I can use in 8-10 knots with my Mako wide 150cm, Dimitri was sure this would work, it did work, but not very well and was not fun in the least.

Now I want to make it clear to the readers, the quote below was adjusted by you ...

It was blowing 8 - 10 knots that afternoon and later on picked up a few knots which is when I switched to my 12.5m Ion 3.
... but it still yanked me downwind because it sits so far back in the window.

it sounds like (because of the way the quote was shortened) I was saying that I was still being pulled downwind with my ION 3. I assure you I was not, which was what really surprised me, here I am in 8-10 knots with a big kite and while I am able to plain with speed and edge as much as I can I am not getting a good upwind angle, and then when the wind picked up to 11 - 13 knots I switched to a much smaller kite 12.5m and was instantly going upwind without effort, using the same board.

as far as the v3 is concerned... I have not tried it, Dimitri has offered to let me try it in April but I don't feel it will make much difference. Comparing the difference from the v1 to the v2 I honestly cannot see how the v3 is going to fly that much different. I think until they abandon modeling the infinity after the renegade the cons which I have pointed out will remain.

I'm happy you are enjoying the thread!

frankm1960 wrote:@laughingman,
I read your review of the V2 way back.... here's a bit of it...

It was blowing 8 - 10 knots that afternoon and later on picked up a few knots which is when I switched to my 12.5m Ion 3.
... but it still yanked me downwind because it sits so far back in the window.
In the wind that I tested it in, I was planing very well, I even had 1/2 of the depower pulled in but still struggled to get upwind.

So you're in 8-10kts and "struggled to get upwind"? That I don't understand because when I look
at the video of those two girls on the V3 planning (video Dimitry posted a couple pages back) and they're having a great time in the same wind conditions, around 9-10kts she says. The 2nd girl in that same video is a real light weight and she's smokin in what I believe they say was 7kts, no apparent trouble staying up wind. Both girls are much lighter than you at I believe 175lbs?. I think that's correct.

I would have to try the kite for myself but it seems weird that both those girls were having a good time and you were struggling in the same wind conditions. Maybe that's the diff between the V2 and V3

Can you comment on that other than to say that the video is potentially BS

I do not expect a light wind kite to perform as a small kite, there are tradeoffs no matter what. But if a kite can fly in 2-4 knots you would think by the time you get to 8-10 knots you would be going upwind on a very good angle with the kite trimmed properly with just about any board (within reason)
I have not tried the Racer, maybe in April if it is available for a demo and a new Epic release is attached to that kite, I have vowed never to use the old Epic bar again as it might be my last...
How did you find the Racer? I'd really like to hear your thoughts on it.

Pete

ym wrote:
It is going to be very hard to find a light wind kite that will perform like a smaller kite. They all will be slow and since there aren't any wind (hense LW), the kite has to generate it's power via apparent wind or just low end grunt (like renegades....).
Have you tried the Racer kite? I had a chance to try it when it was a prototype. It sure is a much higher aspect kite than Infinity.

Is it possible for you to repost those vids ? as much as I like this thread it's great reading the first time but going back and looking for a post is a lot of work... which is a 4 letter bad word for me.

Is it possible for you to repost those vids ? as much as I like this thread it's great reading the first time but going back and looking for a post is a lot of work... which is a 4 letter bad word for me.

Racer was very interesting kite. Very high aspect and it did create all the power with apparent wind. It sure did have good power, but was very different from Infinity... Kinda make sense.
It has this "sweet spot" that when you lock the kite in a specific spot, it just pulled you. I do understand why it was called the Racer. Good upwind ability.
I just don't know how much you will have fun jumping and stuff, but if you are looking for some fast and "race" oriented kiting, I think Racer is the way to go.
Just my 2 cents